CWUP 1-20
Advisory and Legislative Function of the Board of Trustees
Although the board of trustees may initiate policy, for the most part it functions in an advisory and legislative manner. It delegates to the president duties which are initiatory and executive. It is the function of the board to approve or reject policies proposed by the president in the light of all available objective evidence. The president, with the administration and the faculty, develops educational and other programs for consideration, and the board furnishes the necessary legislation and authority for the president, the administration and the faculty to carry them out effectively. It is the board's opinion that sound administration springs from professional leadership and lay control.
The above does not in any way restrict the board of trustees from expressing its opinion on educational issues or matters of institutional welfare including long-range planning.
The board of trustees should seldom, if ever, concern itself with the details of administration. Upon the basis of recommendations and data presented by the president, it should determine how, in general, the various problems and administrative tasks are to be solved and leave it to the president to apply the policies decided upon. Whenever a case arises where no policy has been established, the president will analyze the situation and determine the issue upon which the board needs to act, and it will then be the function of the board to establish a policy. After the board has acted, the president will apply the new policy to all particular cases.
The board should always act as a unit. It governs the university as a body representing the people, and individual members have no authority. No member can bind the board by word or action, unless the CWU board has, in its corporate capacity, designated that trustee as its agent for some specific purpose, and then that person can go no further than he or she has been empowered.
Even during a regular meeting of the board, its control is exercised as a body and the individual member has no right beyond his or her own voice in any matter.
[Responsibility: Board of Trustees; Authority: Cabinet/UPAC; Reviewed/Endorsed by: Cabinet/UPAC; Review/Effective Date: 06/2008; Approved by: James L. Gaudino, President]
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